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Journalism of Courage
The Bajaj Group, one of India’s oldest and most respected business conglomerates, is preparing to celebrate the birth centenary of one of its founding fathers, Kamalnayan Bajaj, with an extensive roster of activities both inside and outside its companies.
This includes audio-visual presentations at Bajaj Group offices and factories at over 50 locations, and the installation of a framed picture of the patriarch, along with a ceremony to garland it. A book by media personality and business historian Gita Piramal will be distributed to over 10,000 Bajaj Auto employees, the Group said in a release.
Beneficiaries of the Group’s CSR initiatives have planned functions to mark the celebrations. The ceremony at Sankara Nethralaya in Chennai on Friday will be presided over by former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi. Ruby Hall Foundation, a very popular hospital in Pune, too, has planned celebrations on the occasion.
Kamalnayan Bajaj, eldest son of Bajaj Group patriarch Jamnalal Bajaj, was born on January 23, 1915. He was a multi-faceted personality who led a life guided by his father, Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave.
This resulted in an active, lifelong involvement in philanthropy, and support to education, medical care and famine and flood relief. He wore khadi for as long as he lived. Kamalnayan was also a three-term parliamentarian, who carried out his social calling alongside the work of building a business empire, and planted the seeds of many of the best known companies of the Bajaj Group. Under his stewardship, the Bajaj Group expanded into automobiles, steel engineering and electricals.
“…As regards business sense, Kakaji (Kamalnayan) was far greater than his father. Kakaji founded and built upon the edifice of our business almost from ground up,” Piramal’s book, Kamalnayan
Bajaj, Architect of the Bajaj Group, quotes Group head Rahul Bajaj as saying.
The Bajaj Group rose to become one of the country’s top 20 industrial houses during the lifetime of Kamalnayan. Today, the Group has a market cap of approximately Rs 1,30,000 crore, and a profit before tax of over Rs 8,000 crore. Bajaj Auto is the third largest manufacturer of motorcycles in the world.
“Personal example is the only way to initiate fundamental change. Kamalnayan headed the group for thirty years, a time sufficiently long for the organisation and all his stakeholders to test him, his principles and his leadership style. And only after the grilling, to individually accept and adopt Kamalnayan’s core principles,” writes Piramal.
